Online Tool Store
Markdown to PDF
Turn Markdown into a styled PDF with A4/Letter/Legal and portrait/landscape control. Task lists, tables, and code blocks render correctly. Runs in your browser.
🔒 This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to a server.
Example shown — replace it with your own Markdown.
Used as the PDF's file name and heading in the print dialog.
"Save as PDF" opens your browser's print dialog — choose Save as PDF as the destination. That keeps the text selectable and searchable in the finished file.
Preview
How Markdown to PDF works
- Paste or type your Markdown. The preview updates as you go, entirely on your device.
- Set a title — it becomes the suggested file name in the save dialog.
- Choose a paper size (A4, Letter, or Legal) and orientation to match what you're sending the PDF to.
- Press "Save as PDF" and pick Save as PDF as the destination. Only the document prints, not this page's controls or navigation.
- Or take the rendered HTML instead — Download .html for a complete styled document, or Copy HTML for plain markup to paste elsewhere.
Why the print engine makes a better PDF
There are two ways a browser can produce a PDF, and they give very different files:
screenshot route: HTML → canvas bitmap → image embedded in PDF print route: HTML → layout engine → text and vectors in PDF
The screenshot route is what most in-page "download PDF" buttons do, and it turns your words into pixels: the file cannot be searched or copied from, text blurs when zoomed, and a page of prose can weigh several hundred kilobytes. The print route keeps glyphs as glyphs, so the same page is typically a few kilobytes, stays crisp at any zoom, and remains selectable — which also means screen readers and search indexes can still read it. The trade-off is the dialog: browsers will not write a file to your disk without you confirming it. One extra click buys a genuinely better document, which is why this tool takes that route. Pagination is handled with CSS rather than guesswork — headings are told not to break away from the text that follows them, and code blocks, quotes, and table rows are kept whole rather than split across a page boundary.
FAQ
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. The Markdown is parsed and styled by your own browser, and the PDF is produced by your browser's own print engine. Nothing is uploaded, and no copy exists beyond the file you save.
Why does it open the print dialog instead of just downloading?
Because that produces a far better PDF. Your browser's print engine lays the document out with real fonts, so the text stays selectable, searchable, and sharp at any zoom. Tools that generate the file directly usually paste in a screenshot of the page, which is heavier and cannot be searched. Choose "Save as PDF" as the destination.
Which Markdown features are supported?
Standard Markdown plus GitHub extensions: headings, bold and italic, lists, links, images, blockquotes, fenced code blocks, horizontal rules, and tables. Strikethrough and task lists work too.
Can I use raw HTML inside my Markdown?
Only safe, structural tags survive. Markdown allows raw HTML, so the rendered output is filtered against an allowlist before it reaches the page — script, style, iframe, event handlers, and javascript: links are stripped. Text inside a removed tag is kept, so nothing silently disappears.
How do I control page size and margins?
Pick A4, Letter, or Legal, and Portrait or Landscape, in the tool itself — those set the @page size the browser prints to. Scale and the browser's own headers and footers (the URL and date it can add) are set in the print dialog. The document ships with an 18mm margin, and headings avoid being stranded at the bottom of a page.
Can I paste a README straight in?
Yes, and it is one of the better uses for this. Badge images that point at external services will only appear if your browser can load them; everything else — tables, code samples, nested lists, and GitHub-style task list checkboxes — renders as written.
Is the downloaded HTML file styled, or just raw text?
Download .html produces a complete, self-contained document — the same look as the preview, with no dependency on this page, so it opens correctly anywhere. Copy HTML instead gives you the plain semantic markup with no styling attached, which is what you want when pasting into a CMS or editor that applies its own.
How we compare
| Feature | Online Tool Store | Other online converters | Pandoc / command line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your document never leaves your device | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Selectable, searchable text in the PDF | ✓ | Varies — many embed a bitmap instead | ✓ |
| Live preview while you edit | ✓ | Usually upload-then-wait | ✗ |
| Nothing to install, no account | ✓ | No install, but sign-up is common | ✗ |
| Paper size and orientation control | ✓ | Varies by tool | ✓ |
| No watermark, sign-up, or paywall for a plain export | ✓ | Some watermark free downloads | ✓ |
Reach for this when you have notes, a README, meeting minutes, or a spec in Markdown and need something presentable to send — without installing a toolchain or handing an internal document to a conversion service. For academic work with citations and custom templates, Pandoc remains the better answer.